If you followed the OpenXML conflict pretty closely then you know that MS subverted the process and pushed through an unusable "standard" (unusable even for MS). Now they continue to abuse ISO and are trying to revise the standard to match their product, to the detriment of any possible competitor.

I don't have a problem with a company pushing their agenda, but MS in my opinion, goes much further too often. All one has to do is review their history of abusing their "business partners" and people and organizations that are in the way. So one should be extra careful when dealing with MS.

You ought to consider some viewpoints not derived from Groklaw or the NoOOXML crowd. OpenXML is not a perfect standard, but it's quite usable and specifies almost all constructs you will see in a conforming document. On what basis do you think the standard is "unusable even by Microsoft?"

Please identify a product that has implemented the the standard including MS? When will MS have a compliant product released 2011? Why are they making changes to the standard that ignores what was agreed upon in the final standard?

How do you implement a standard that says do X like Word 95 does?

BTW I think MS Word 2003 is the best word processor out there (I want my old menus back in 2007 and it would move to 1st) so I don't just hate MS, just the way they do business in a lot of areas